The Jazz Apple Cycling team continued to dominate the women’s field at the 30th anniversary of the Tour de White Rock, but there was a new face atop the podium in the men’s Peace Arch News Road Race on Sunday (July 19th).

Nieves Carrasco, a three-time National Time Trial champion in his native Costa Rica, took off from a nine-rider breakaway halfway through the 134-km race, and never looked back. Carrasco, riding for Specialized Dizzy Cycling, easily finished alone, though not without controversy.

“I was in a breakaway with (teammate Pablo Araya) and saw everyone was agitated and there was a gap between me and the chase group and I thought it was a good time to try and see because they were breathing hard,” Carrasco said with translation from Andreas Carmona, the team’s manager and a salesman at Vancouver-based Dizzy Cycles store that sponsors the team. “I was going to give it a shot to see if they’d let me go and in fact they did so he just kept going. I was never sure I could get away. I just knew that was my move and I was going to stick with it. I also knew that I had a partner in the break, in the chase group, and every time I went through the feed zone I knew I was gaining a few seconds. I never had total, for-sure security I could win but I just stayed at the front.”

Unfortunately Carrasco opened up such a big gap that it led to a mistake by race officials, which gave him an even bigger lead on everyone else.

The men were supposed to do 11 laps of the larger 10.1-kilometer circuit before finishing up with six more laps of a smaller 3.8-kilometer route. But with Cam Evans (Ouch Pro Cycling) and Canadian Olympian Zach Bell (Kelly Benefit Strategies) trying to bridge from a nine-rider breakaway Carrasco, officials sent the Costa Rican rider into the shorter circuit one lap too soon, while Bell, Evans and everyone else rode another big lap.

Neither could be sure they would have caught Carrasco, but both wanted a chance to try. Instead they settled for rounding out the podium.

“I don’t know if we would have been able to catch him but it sucks to have the race neutralized with 20-30 kms left,” said Bell, who was third. “He rode away early and we were like `OK we’ll just let him roast himself out there and then we’ll go with a couple of laps to go and hopefully have time to catch him.’ We did and then they burned the time down on us.”

Evans, who settled for second place, liked his chances of closing a gap that was around 90 seconds before the official’s made their mistake.

“It’s hard to say,” said Evans, a three-time Canadian Champion. “Zach and I are two guys, were going to work together. He’s one guy and he’s been out there for 40 kilometers by himself already. Typically stuff can come together because you get more draft on the smaller circuit so it’s easier for two people to work together than a guy by himself, which is tough.”

That said, no one was denying the form Carrasco was showing in a hilly, demanding road race, and the 30-year-old is, according to Carmona, known as the “Jens Voigt of Costa Rica, the King of the Breakaways.”

“He’s super strong so it’s anyone’s guess,” added Evans. “He probably could have won anyways, but who knows. It’s a little bit frustrating.”

For his part, Carrasco knew what had happened but not soon enough.

“It was too late. I couldn’t turn around,” he said of a mistake compounded by the language gap. “Then they sent me for one more lap anyway at the end. I thought the last lap was because of that. I didn’t know for sure.”

Araya won a bunch sprint out of the peleton almost 10 minutes behind to claim fourth place just ahead of Jamie Sparling (Trek Red Truck), adding to a great weekend for the Specialized Dizzy Cycling team, which also put Costa Rican rider Steven Villalobos atop the podium at Friday’s HIllclimb.

Carmona, a cyclist who spends winters in Costa Rica, has been bringing the riders north for BC Superweek for five years in an attempt to start his own team. With sponsorship help from Specialized and the Dizzy Cycles shop where he also works, things came completely together this summer.

“The idea is grow grassroots team out of Kitsilano (the area of Vancouver where Dizzy Cycles operates). I proposed this project in October last year with Canadian and international riders,” said Carmona. “It’s been really hard, but here we are and we’re really thankful for our sponsors.”Evan’s Ouch Pro Cycling teammate, Andrew Pinfold, who won Saturday’s Criterium and was fifth in the Hillclimb Friday, finished in 12th, good enough to hold onto the Tour de White Rock Omnium, or overall, title.

Things finished smoother in the women’s race, which consisted of eight laps around the larger – but no less grueling – 10.1 kilometer circuit.

After staying together most of the race, Jazz Apple’s Dotsie Bausch, a two-time US National champion who won the Hillclimb Friday, broke away in the third-to-last lap, and quickly opened up a 30-second gap.

Bausch finished in two hours, 33 minutes and 13.30 seconds, almost two minutes ahead of teammate Marina Duvnjka, who won a sprint for second just ahead of Amy Herlinveaux of the local Trek Red Truck Racing team.

Knowing Duvnjak was behind her – not to mention several others from a dominant Jazz Apple squad – made it easier for Bausch to attack early, especially with Duvnjak marking Canadian Olympian Erinne Willock.

“I have 100 per cent trust in those girls and Marina’s whole job was to sit right on Erinne, which is a compliment to Erinne because no doubt that she was the one we needed to watch her to win the bike race,” said Bausch, who marked Willock as Duvnjak won Saturday’s criterium.

“If I was by myself at this race I wouldn’t feel confident in going 100 per cent at that point because if you get caught you have no more bullets.”

As a team, the New Zealand based Jazz Apple had plenty left in the gun.

Duvnjak, who was also second to Bausch in the Hillclimb Friday, won the Tour de White Rock Omnium, or overall, title. Bausch was second.

“We just felt really good today and wanted to try and get first and second in the overall so we just went for it, and we were just feeding off each other so well,” said Bausch, who at 36 showed she can be more than just a mentor to the young development squad. “I was confident in them, so if I blew up I knew Marina was right on Erinne and then she would go.”

For Willock, who didn’t have any teammates from her Webcor Builders Pro team on hand, it was frustrating being a target. But the Olympian also knows it’s good for cycling in BC and Canada to have Jazz Apple here.

“They’re marking me and it’s a compliment, that’s bike racing,” Willock said. “It’s awesome to have a big team here. They race pro and other riders learn the race tactics and learn the race etiquette and they say ‘OK, I have to go home and do a lot of training because that was hard.”

Or in the case of Herlinveaux, a 26 year old in her second year of cycling, they get to share a podium with a two-time US national champion.

“Definitely my best result ever,” said a beaming Herlinveaux. “It’s a huge privilege and I’m just a little overwhelmed right now because I can’t quite believe it. … I was just trying to get in any break I could and try to be on top of everything and my teammate Leah (Guloien, from Trek Red Truck,) helped me do that. I didn’t want to be out of a field sprint. I like sprinting out of smaller groups. My legs were cramping and I didn’t know if I could pull it off and was worried someone was going to come around me but I just kind of hung on and I was really shocked but also super excited.”

Duvnjak capped a great 10 days at the $40,000 BC Superweek, which also included winning the road race at the Tour de Delta one week earlier. She plans to watch her partner race at the Cascade Classic next week before going home to New Zealand, but has no intention of racing in Oregon.

“I want to finish on a high and this is it,” said Duvnjak. “Jazz Apple has always had a good history at (BC Superweek) so to build on that and maybe try and build even more somehow next year, and the fact we’re jelling so well on and off the bike it means a lot. You can’t top it really.”

Please note that because of the confusion in the mens race, there are no times are in the attached results. This was a decision by the commissaires to leave the times blank, considering the confusion that they dealt with over the course of the day. The standings and results are signed off by the commissaires and are official.